Coyotes roll to victory over Texas Wesleyan in season opener

Saturday

Well, Kansas Wesleyan football wanted to do that and some more in its season opener against Texas Wesleyan on Saturday night at Graves Family Sports Complex.

The Coyotes separated themselves early against the Rams and rolled to a 48-24 victory to give coach Myers Hendrickson his first win at the helm of the program.

“It feels great," Hendrickson said. "We played a really good team tonight that I think is going to win a lot of games this year. Our guys came out and fired on all cylinders. It was an outstanding start to the game and really set the table ahead for the season to play well.”

KWU's offense, which was among the best in the nation in 2018, put together a strong opening drive that resulted in senior quarterback Johnny Feauto finding senior tight end Trenton Poe-Evans on a 15-yard pass for the season's first touchdown. Feauto added his second midway through the first quarter on a 3-yard pass to junior wide receiver Richard McCauley.

Senior running back Demarco Prewitt added his name to the scoring column with a 13-yard run on a fourth and 2. It was one of five fourth-down conversions for the Coyotes in the game.

“We’re very gutsy," said Prewitt, who finished with 127 rushing yards. "We don’t care who it is. If we feel like our players are better than yours, we’re gonna do what we do best and get the first (down)."

In the second quarter, Feauto found Poe-Evans for a 2-yard connection and junior Stevie Williams hauled in a pair of touchdown passes of 30 and 25 yards.

Even with the Coyote offense producing numbers, its defense was holding the Rams in check.

Senior defensive lineman Shaq Bradford found ways through the Ram offense and recorded 4.5 sacks in the first 30 minutes of play. Bradford also led the Coyotes in tackles with six, five of them unassisted.

“Shaq’s a game-changer," Hendrickson said. "He changed the game by himself completely by the way he would get after the passer, makes quarterbacks uncomfortable, and he did a nice job of that."

TXWU was able to get on the board right before halftime with a 37-yard field goal by Greg Blaser.

KWU got its final score midway through the third on a 4-yard run by Prewitt.

With the game getting out of hand, KWU elected to rest its starters for the rest of the way. TXWU was able to score 21 points in a span of seven minutes in the fourth to make the score that much closer.

Feauto finished the evening 13-of-21 passing for 215 yards and five touchdowns, while also having 52 yards rushing and 25 receiving yards. Feauto's five passing touchdowns tied a season-high from 2018 against Friends.

"They loaded the box because (Demarco) Prewitt killed them last year, so we were able to do some things in the passing game and the receivers just stepped up and did amazing," Feauto said.

Hendrickson said it was a solid performance from his experienced signal caller.

"I was really happy with how Johnny threw it around," he said. "He's a very accurate passer and is a dynamic playmaker. Just really excited about what he’s doing and continuing to work with him. When the ball is in his hands, he makes plays.”

McCauley led KWU in receiving with 86 yards on four catches.

KWU (1-0) opens up KCAC play against Tabor at 6 p.m. Saturday at Graves Family Sports Complex.